Seagate thins product line in black ink bid

Layoffs today, new kit tomorrow

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Seagate is thinking small in its bid to generate more revenue with the planned release later this year of a one-inch 5GB disk drive.

The new mini-drive will make up part of a massive product roll-out, including 12 new hard disk drives, according to various reports out of Asia. The products said to be made at a Singapore plant are meant to revive Seagate's flagging business by opening up new markets for products such as music players and digital cameras to the company. Last week, Seagate announced plans to slough off close to 3,000 workers, hoping to improve its bottom line.

During its layoff announcement, Seagate promised to roll out new products over the course of this year that would help it be more competitive. The kit appears to be popping up in Asia first, as Seagate has yet to release an official statement on the gear here.

The reports, however, say that Seagate will complement the mini-drive with a 400GB drive for use in digital video recorders and other products in the one-inch to 2.5-inch range. Most of this gear will be aimed at consumer devices, as opposed to Seagate's traditional stronghold in PCs, laptops and servers. ®